one of those cliche gratitude posts...:)

Today I am grateful for:

Random strangers who take us to the grocery store

The melting snow and warmth from the sun

Dragging my butt on the treadmill, even when I don't want to

Singing "Come thou fount" in Women's choir--the same one we did in Acapella

Handel's Messiah

My healthy body

Missionaries

My lovely roommates

Muscianship II

The promise that no matter how messed up our country gets, the righteous will be protected

My best friend Whitney

5 days til I get to go home for Thanksgiving

An incredible family

That I've made it through this day despite not sleeping well

The things I learn in master class

The wonderful examples of the people around me

Getting to know people better.

An exciting life ahead of me

Talents and abilities

The ability to learn

The chances to be humble, even though they are not easy

My nerdy crocheting ability

Scarves

My gray jacket with inside pockets

Colored Goldfish

Having a microwave and mini fridge

The organized church

My calling

A warm comforter

The Holy Ghost

The Atonement

The chance to read the scriptures

Journal writing

Emails

Pictures of the Savior in my room

My heart sister ring ;)

Love Love Love

What are you thankful for today?

like it's the last night of the world

After a night filled with frozed custard and great company, I came home to my favorite roommates sprawled on three mattresses covering our living room floor and proceeded to have a sleepover in our own dorm. It was absolutely fantastic. I will love these girls forever.

so move funny face

5 hours later.

the day you knew would arrive is here...

You'll survive.

for my sister

I love all three of my siblings SO SO MUCH. We have our fights and silly disagreements, but when it comes down to it, I know we are always a family and I have so much love for them. I miss them so much being up here and I love when any one of them will text me and I love talking to them on Sundays. They are so great.

I especially wanted to dedicate this post to my darling sister Cammie. She is 16 and a half and one of my best friends. We used to fight ALL the time when we were younger, but something changed when she came to high school. We instantly had something in common, but we participated in such different activities and interests that we never felt the need to compete against each other. Cammie is very much her own person. She has what she likes, and she never tries to like something else to please others. She does her thing, and she does it well. I have truly hated being away from her since I've come up here. Nothing makes me more happy than getting a text from her. However, as hard as it has been to not see her every day, it has also been a really good experience for us, and made us even closer, as it has with my other siblings as well. I've really been proud and awed as I've watched her live her life from afar, as I've heard about her friends, and her school life, and seen how much she is blossoming and finding her place, how much progress she is making and what a strong person she is becoming. She is SO AWESOME and I will love her forever. Sometimes I despair a little when I think of the friends I have lost, and the friends I have now knowing that there's no way I can keep every person in my life. But then I think about my sister and remember that I never have to let go of her, I can keep her in my life for ever and eternity, and same with the rest of my family. I love them so much! If you don't know Cammie, get to know her, your life will be better for it.

I LOVE YOU CAM CAM!

i haven't left my dorm yet today.

It's been one of those days where I would really rather just stay in bed all day long. So I did.

I'm reading Eat Pray Love--the one that they just made into a movie with Julia Roberts. It is a good, good book. I've missed just doing nothing all day but read. I haven't done that for months.

On the other hand, it kind of sucks that this weekend has been a total bust. I guess that's my fault. Sometimes I lack the motivation to go find anything fun to do. It's definitely something we have to create here, it doesn't just fall in our laps usually.

Stake conference tonight, I'm ready to go be spiritually edified. That will be good for my soul.

I wonder how on earth we are going to get ourselves to church tomorrow at 9 am when we usually sleep in until ridiculous hours on Sundays. It's safe to say that we will be taking some epic naps tomorrow afternoon.

Sometimes I have to remind myself that now is the time to be patient, that I will never get to have experiences like this again and I need to make the most of these awesome opportunities.

I'm incredibly blessed to have such wonderful roommates, especially my room roommate and best friend Whitney. She's a really good sport when it's 1:30 in the morning and she jsut wants to sleep but I want to talk. Thank you Whit, you are a blessing in so many ways.

I'm gonna go have some hot chocolate now. It's 50 cents at Pita Pit and it's divine.

november week

I haven't really posted on here this week because I feel like nothing's been happening that is picture worthy, or that people would find interesting, but I just had the thought, "why should I care about that? I don't blog for them, I blog for me." So here are my thoughts for this lovely first week of November:

Firstly, the weather has been INCREDIBLE. I don't understand. I am living in Rexburg Idaho where it snows all the days and is negative temperatures. We have not had snow here yet (I don't count the 1/4 of an inch that melted in an hour, sorry Jayna and Krista, I know it got you excited). This week it has been 65 degrees. Blessing? An enormous one.

I have been a studying machine this week. It's been fabulous. I love it when I can just focus for hours and hours and feel so accomplished with what I am doing. On the other hand, I took another science test that I studies SO hard for, and yeah. Got a B. If you tell me that's good I might hurt you.

I love being healthy SO much. I have been off of treats (minus the weekends) since September which feels so good. I've been trying really hard to work out. On Monday I went to the gym and told myself, "yeah I'll do 30 minutes on the treadmill which will be awesome." I felt so good the entire time, that I ended up going for 45. I know it's not much, but it will get there.

Things with my major are going really well. I still adore my music theory class, especially since we started secondary dominants. I am just so comfortable with everything we do in that class which makes me feel really good about myself. Also, my voice lessons are going super well too. I'm learning TONS and improving every day and growing so much. I can tell that Sister Ashby is proud of the things that I am doing and she is getting really nitty gritty about things I need to change and fix. It's a good feeling when I go to a group lesson and am given important things to work on that will improve my tone and resonance, while the other girl is being coached through technique--notes and rythms and stuff. I still have SO SO far to go, so much to learn, so many bad habits to break and new things to implement, but I am starting to really like practicing and really like my lessons. This is a very good thing.

My best friend Jared comes home in 6 weeks from yesterday. It didn't really hit me just how SOON he is coming home until I wrote him yesterday and fully comprehended, oh my gosh. He will be HOME! I have missed that kid so much. More than anything, I have just missed having a best guy friend that I did everything with and talked to about everything, with no pressure of "does he like me? do I need to act a certain way? blah blah blah?" Oh I am so excited to see him.

What an excellent week this has been. And tomorrow is Friday. :) I'm going to the temple after classes and then taking a test...and then whatever else the Rexburg wind brings me.